Why the Bible? Why Christ?

We live in the era of "COEXIST", where the word is cleverly written in seven symbols representing seven major religions. Accepting the concept that word describes – coexisting with other beliefs – is a no-brainer for Christians: we are taught to love not just our allies but our enemies as well. But the implication of the meme is something completely different: we are told to accept others’ beliefs as just as legitimate as ours. 

On a cursory reading that might sound similar, but in reality it’s no different than saying that just because you don’t believe in “fill-in-the-fact” doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help you discover the truth. You may not believe that standing in the middle of a highway could get you killed, but it WILL, and more than that, it’s our responsibility as caring individuals to try to save you from both the erroneous notion and its lethal consequences. You may not believe in the law of gravity, but it exists, and it will be the instrument of your death if you step off a five-hundred foot cliff whether you believe in it or not. So, isn’t it our responsibility to help those who believe in erroneous world-views to learn the truth? Especially if we know the dire consequences of their mistake?

Which of those religions is the “truth”, though? At the risk of giving away the plot of this essay, I suspect you already know my answer:

Only one religion provides tangible proof of its veracity.

Only one religion has as its holy text a book which is not only filled with prophecy, but is filled with prophecy fulfilled: the entire campaign and reign of Alexander the Great and his immediate descendants, described in such detail in Daniel chapter 11 that skeptics tried (and failed) to prove it couldn’t have been written five hundred years before the events it described…the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Rome in 70 AD, foretold by Christ in Matthew 24…the re-establishment of both the nation of Israel and the language of Hebrew, more than eighteen hundred years after their elimination by Rome, in Ezekiel 36 and 37…and most significantly, the raising from the dead of its founder, which he himself predicted multiple times during his life and which was predicted in the Psalms and in the book of Isaiah hundreds of years earlier as well. 

And it is this very resurrection of Jesus Christ, not only predicted ahead of time and presented in advance as proof of his deity, not only written about in the gospels but witnessed by literally thousands of people in and around Jerusalem in 30 AD, not only celebrated by his believers but admitted to by foes and never denied by any of his enemies despite the obvious huge advantage of doing so…it is this very resurrection that has never been duplicated by any religion’s prophets or leaders or revered figures. This is the proof of deity that all other religions lack. This is the proof of truth which all other religions wish they had.

Christianity is the only proven truth. 

And Christianity is very clear: there is a Heaven, and there is a Hell. The only way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ, and not because God wants to send us to Hell: we are ALL sinners, even the best of you (and certainly me!), and because God is without sin He cannot have us clothed in sin and with Him in eternity. So He sent His Son Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, to live a sinless life and then be punished not for HIS sins but for OURS, so that we have complete repentance for our sinful lives and can be accepted into eternal life with God.

In order to HAVE that acceptance, though, we have to do ONE SIMPLE THING: we must accept the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. When we do so, we’re essentially admitting that yes, we are sinners, and we need this gift to get into Heaven when we die. If you aren’t ready to accept that, you have that choice. God gave us free-will. The Bible tells us that in the end, “every knee will bow and every tongue will confess” that Jesus is Lord, but until then, you are allowed to choose your path…even if that path is in the middle of the highway or off the edge of the five-hundred foot cliff.

But, forgive me if I refuse to translate COEXIST as CO-DEPEND. 

Because God WON’T forgive me for the converse.

Just because you insist on believing something that’s not the truth doesn’t mean that I’m not going to try to keep you from stepping off that cliff or walking on that highway. 

Don’t get mad at me for wanting to save you from the consequences of your decision, as someone else saved me from the consequences of my prior ignorance.

As Christians, we are taught to COEXIST, and God really DOES love you no matter what you believe. In fact, God loves you more than you think He does – He loves you far too much to “coexist”, or to let His people be your “co-dependents”. He – and we – are going to do whatever we can to keep you from walking into traffic.

BUT…

He gave you free will. In the end, it’s your choice whether to believe in the truth or not.

That cliff will still be there, if you insist.

They're strong and they're bold - Richmond wins AFL Grand Final!

(originally published in The Roar - Sept 30 2017)

The parallels have been beaten to a yellow and black pulp already: the underdog but hot Melbourne-based club, coming in against the dominant minor premiers, breaking a decades-long drought and bringing ecstasy to a starving fan base.

But this wasn’t Doggies Redux. It wasn’t Footscray Lite.

It was the graduation of the Tiger defense to legendary status.

At “Following Football”, I don’t usually get into game-plan details as much as I do number crunching. And there are certainly numbers to crunch, with the most blatant being the season-low 60 points and eight goals (three of those in garbage time) that this defense held the vaunted Crows scoring machine to in the biggest game in Adelaide’s 21st century history.

But as much as it pains a maths major to type this, Richmond’s Grand Final victory wasn’t about numbers. And despite the beauty of the storyline, and the magnificence of his play, RIchmond’s title game wasn’t won on the back of Demigod Dustin. Nor was it a ratification of the DIon Prestia recruitment. And although he was the media star of the post-game party, on stage with the Killers and first through the banner, it wasn’t about Jack Riewoldt winning the title that eluded his cousin.

It was about that back line.

As great as a Brownlow-Norm Smith double is for Dustin Martin’s resume, the two men who held that game when Adelaide was still a threat were the All-Australian captain Alex Rance and the underrated, recently-maligned Bachar Houli. Nick Vlastuin was all over the field throughout the contest, Dylan Grimes and David Astbury were locked in, and Nathan Broad found thirteen disposals on his stat line by game’s end. The entire back six deserves their kudos.

But it was Houli who seemed to be involved in every important possession, especially early when the game was in doubt, and Rance who served as the magic eraser for every Adelade assault. I was personally astounded that four of the five voters for the Norm Smith medal failed to even name Rance on their ballots. While the symbolism of rewarding Dustin Martin not just for his play Saturday but for a season where he was best-on-ground in fully half of his games is enticing, his scoring plays in the second half felt inevitable once the Rance-led defense had taken the air out of the highest-scoring offense in the league.

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Tiger followers this year: in 25 games, Richmond held their opponents to 81 points or fewer 22 times. Of the three outliers, one was round 1 v. Carlton, who managed to reach the league’s season average of 89 in a 43-point loss to the Tigers. The other two were the two “failures” in Richmond’s season: the demolitions by Adelaide in Round 6 (a battle of 5-0 teams which mirrored the GF in that Richmond lost a nine-point lead at quarter and was routed by 76) and St. Kilda in Round 16 (a “one-off” where the Saints annihilated Richmond 14 goals to one in the first half and lost by “only” 67).

Thus the defense allowed 238 points in those two games alone (139/game), and in the other 23, they allowed just 68.4 per game (1573 points total), including just 55.7 per finals game. During the season (counting the two “failures”, of course) Richmond was third in points allowed, just slightly behind Sydney and Port Adelaide (one point per game behind Port, two behind the Swans). But when it counted most, the Tigers’ defense was strong and bold.

In most sports, when the championship is on the line, the old adage is that a great defense will beat a great offense. Turns out that was true on the grounds of the MCG Saturday.

For Adelaide and Richmond, the season began together as well, just over seven months ago, just six km to the west in Etihad Stadium on February 24, in their very first pre-season game. Richmond won that one too, 92-73, and like Saturday’s tilt Adelaide started with the lead before the TIgers started to pull away in the second half. Josh Caddy’s first game for the Tigers produced a goal, which he duplicated in the first period against the minor premiers. Dion Prestia and Curtly Hampton had impressive debuts for their respective clubs, and Rory Laird starred in midfield while his star running mate Sloane was waiting to return from an eye socket injury. (And Richmond won that game in the yellow guernseys, too.)

My notes from that game are filled with glowing reviews of both teams, and encouraging signs for the season still to come for each club. But nowhere in my notes, nor I’ll wager in anyone else’s who covered the game, does it say “A preview of this September’s Grand Final”. Shows how much we know! (Want to try to pick next year’s finalists yet? Apparently, anyone in this year’s top 13 is a reasonable possibility…)

To put a bow on the season, let’s take a look at the final 2017 ELO-Following Football ratings for all eighteen teams. Thanks to three dominating finals victories, plus five of six strong wins following the St. Kilda debacle which dropped them to a “definition-of-average” rating of 50.0, Richmond ends the season with a rating of 84.7 after an 18-7 record overall. Here are the entirety of the ratings (with records):

First, there are the three best teams this season:

>Richmond (18-7) - 84.7

>Sydney (15-9) - 81.3

>Adelaide (17-7-1) - 80.0

Then, there’s a gap to the next three teams:

>Geelong (16-8-1) - 66.6

>Port Adelaide (14-9) - 65.2

>GWS (15-8-2) - 63.5

And then, another gap to the marginal contenders:

>Collingwood (9-12-1) - 51.7

>Hawthorn (10-11-1) - 50.6

>West Coast (13-11) - 50.4

>Melbourne and St Kilda (ironically, both 11-11...) ...and both 50.1

>Essendon (12-11) - 46.0

>Western BD (11-11) - 44.6

And finally, there are the non-contenders…

>North Melbourne (6-16) - 36.1

>Carlton (6-16) - 31.5

>Brisbane (5-17) - 21.7

>Fremantle (8-14) - 18.1

>Gold Coast (6-16) - 7.8

The teams which dropped down in the ratings the most this year were two of the favorites, the Giants (down 12.5 points from the start of the season) and the Bulldogs (down 25). The big risers were Brisbane (up 12.2 this year, more than doubling their start value), Essendon (up 23.9), and not surprisingly, the team that went from 13th place last year to the Grand Final this season, up a staggering 50.7 points since March, almost 15 in September, and 6.5 of those from the last game alone.

So Richmond’s victory wasn’t a fluke - they built towards it throughout the season, more than the finals-hot Bulldogs ever did in 2016. Congratulations to the yellow and black, worthy champions of this Australian Football League season.

What is the "whole armor of God"? And why must we wear it?

Paul tells us about it in Ephesians 6:10-18...

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, 18praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

"Put on the whole armor of God." Why? And what IS it? Let's dissect this...

Why? "...that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." 

Do not be fooled, my friends - we are not alone. We are in the middle of a battle between the forces of Heaven and the "rulers", "authorities", and "cosmic powers over this present darkness". Demons. The devil. Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, whatever you want to call the fallen archangel. The Bible is clear on the existence of these "spiritual forces of evil", and the power they exert against our lives. We have more power at our disposal - never forget that thanks to Revelation, we know how this war will end: the good guys win! God is far more powerful than all the demons combined - but if we never call upon His help, that doesn't matter!

We must utilize the tools He has given us to protect ourselves, and to fight back! Let's look at the tools that we have at our disposal, and how we're supposed to use them:

"Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth..."

Why the "belt" of truth? Because without God's truth, given to us through not only the Bible but through the Holy Spirit and the preached Word from inspired pastors at the pulpit, everything else will fall off. Without something worth fighting for, we have no hope.

"...and having put on the breastplate of righteousness..."

Righteousness is being right with God. How is a Christian right with God? Through the Holy Spirit, Who changes your heart so that you live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Where is your heart? Underneath that breastplate.

"...and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace."

So, we all understand the need for the 'peace that surpasses all understanding' that God provides us. But why would we wear it as a pair of sandals? So that it travels with us wherever we go. So that it is that peace which leads us to where we need to go. So that we never go into battle in anger, which is the enemy's greatest weapon. 

"In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one..."

A shield is the primary defensive weapon that a warrior of the first century would have at his disposal. When the enemy flings his "flaming darts" at you - the darts of self-doubt, of fear, of anxiety, of trouble and distress and difficulty - what do you possess that can let you overcome all of those problems? 

Faith in your Lord. Faith that Romans 8:28 continues to be true - "for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.". Faith in God. Faith that no matter what the devil throws at you, God is bigger than those problems. 

"...and take the helmet of salvation..."

This one's easy. If you know you're saved (if in your head you know you're saved!), then suddenly the flaming darts are less fear-inducing. What's the worst that can happen? As Paul said in Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Either way, he would be fine - either he could live and keep planting churches for Christ, or he could die and meet Jesus immediately.

"...and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication."

What is the only offensive weapon we possess as Christians against the rulers of this present darkness? It is the same weapon which Jesus Himself will use at the end of the Great Tribulation to defeat the armies of Satan single-Handedly - here is Revelation 19:15 →

"From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations..."

...the same sharp sword that we are to use to fight the enemy: the Word of God. Scripture. The Bible. Think about it: what did Jesus use to defeat the devil in the wilderness after his baptism and forty days of fasting? "It is written". The best weapon we have is the Word of God, and that's why it's so important to know your Bible, to read it every day, to learn the key verses from Scripture. It is often your only weapon against the snares of the devil!

So put on the whole armor of God every day. Because the tempter will be waiting for that one day when you go out into the world's battlefield unarmed and unprotected. 

He doesn't take a day off. You can't afford to, either.

There IS no "humanist conspiracy". It's more "normal" than that...

One of the favorite themes of the work-them-up evangelists today is to warn the congregation of presumably holy Christian Believers that there's a conspiracy of "humanist" movements determined to break down God's societal commands.

There's no such conspiracy. It's much simpler than that.

Hollywood does not contrive as a unit to corrupt the morals of the youth of America. They make what sells. If what sold was God's Work, that's what they'd make. Remember Touched By An Angel? Why was that such a successful show - because the "conspiracy" missed it? Of course not - it was well written and touched a nerve in its viewers. So is Game of Thrones - which, alas, is not nearly as supportive of God's Work.

Similarly, do you really think that there's an attempt on the part of some confluence of recording artists to make music and videos intended to damage the moral fiber of Americans from coast to coast? Nonsense. When something "moral" happens to go viral, it sells well, and for that time period there's a slight push in a positive direction. Then, something else will go triple platinum, and it's just as likely to feature boobs and butts as is it the Bible Belt.

People are independent entities. So are individual companies who make decisions on which movies to make, which books to publish, or any of those artistic choices which "influence today's youth". Our youth influence those choices more than those choices influence them. Or rather, it's a cyclical process: the youth decide which trends they'll pay to get published, and those publications unify the specifics of the trend, getting the youth to speak in the same frame of mind, and then some of them move away from the trend in multiple directions. The artists make new choices, the youth decide with their pocketbook which choices match what they're looking for, and the cycle continues.

Of course, it's not just the youth who are influenced and are influencing public artistic expression. We are all customers of the culture's wares. If you want to stop Hollywood and Nashville and Motown from putting out all the corrupting media, stop paying them to put it out. Get enough Christians together and you can influence any production line, even the media.

But we don't. We lap it up. There's a reason 20% of the internet is pornography - they're making money putting it on line.

There is no "corrupting conspiracy" going on, Christians. There are only people who see a way to make a profit selling whatever other people are willing to purchase. There are more people living "of the flesh" than who live "of the spirit - and far too many of those people claim to be Christians. 

"They" are not the problem. "We" are.

 

Odds and equals in College Football this week

Remember last week how I wrote about the different levels of favorites? Well, we had a perfect distribution of upsets and favorites winning to demonstrate the results of those predictions:

“Possible Routs” – we listed eight games that were predicted to be anywhere from 18 to 40 point victories. Guess what? One of them was an actual upset (Richmond fell to Elon 36-33!) and two others were near-upsets: Tennessee held off Massachusetts by just four points, 17-13, and Baylor threatened Oklahoma before falling by a touchdown. The other five went as expected, ranging up to North Dakota State taking a 56-0 lead after the second half kickoff before putting in the scrubs to finish the game.

“Closer games but we think this team will win” – Six games with spreads of 7-14 points were listed, and we suggested that at least one would end up an upset.

Wrong. THREE were upsets – Virginia dominated Boise, 42-23; TCU waxed Oklahoma State 44-31; and Florida State fell to 0-2 by losing to NCSU, 27-21. 50% - we might as well have flipped a coin!

 “Games with a favorite, but…” – We described seven games in the 4 to 6 point spread range, and suggested they were 60/40 predictions. So there “should” have been about three upsets.

Turns out there were TWO: Texas Tech beat Houston, 27-24, and UL-Monroe took two overtimes to beat rival UL-Lafayette, 56-50. Others were close – Wake Forest only won by a single point, 20-19 – but held serve. (It just goes to show the volatility of predicting what 18-22-year-old men will do under pressure.)

“Games that are really too close to call” – ironically, three of the largest victories came out of these games: Georgia State routed Charlotte 28-0, Georgia “upset” Mississippi State 31-3, and Utah State put up 61 points against San Jose’s ten. (The other winners were Duke, Tulane, Ohio, and Miami-Ohio.)

Want to play along? All you really have to do is add three points to the visiting team's rating, and then take the difference between the ratings of two competing teams. (I take some other things into account, but that's the basic premise.) And the system is pretty accurate, once the starting points are right!

Here are the current rankings from the ELO-Following Football rating system at each level of Division 1 American collegiate football after four weeks of play, as most teams are starting conference play in earnest. Included in parentheses are the team’s win-loss record and their national media top 25 ranking, if applicable. Here are our top 25 ratings among the Power Five conferences:

Alabama (4-0, 1) - #1 - 8 rating.

Clemson (4-0, 2), Oklahoma (4-0, 3), and Washington (4-0, 6) – equal #2 – 12 rating.

Oklahoma St (3-1, 15), Penn St (4-0, 4), and Ohio St (3-1, 11) – equal #5 – 14 rating.

Southern Cal (4-0, 5) - #8 – 15 rating.

Wisconsin (3-0, 10) - #9 – 16 rating.

Michigan (4-0, 8) - #10 – 17 rating.

Florida St (0-2), Stanford (2-2), Auburn (3-1, 13), Georgia (4-0, 7) – equal #11 – 18 rating.

TCU (4-0, 9), Virginia Tech (4-0, 12) – equal #15 – 19 rating.

LSU (3-1, 25), Notre Dame (3-1, 22) – equal #17 – 20 rating.

Louisville (3-1, 17), Miami-FL (2-0, 14), Kansas St (2-1), Texas (1-2), Oregon (3-1), Florida (2-1, 21), Mississippi St (3-1, 24) – equal #19 – 22 rating.

“Below” that set of conferences are the “Group Of Five” – the FBS teams who fight with smaller budgets, smaller stadia, smaller everything, and yet are expected to fight on supposedly equal footing with the teams above. Here’s the top ten from the Group of Five, according to ELO-FF:

South Florida (4-0, 18) - #1 – 23 rating.

Central Florida (2-0) - #2 – 27 rating.

San Diego St (4-0, 19) - #3 – 28 rating.

Houston (2-1) - #4 – 29 rating.

SMU (3-1), Colorado St (2-2) – equal #5 – 31 rating.

Boise St (2-2), Appalachian St (2-2), Toledo (3-1), Memphis (3-0) – equal #7 – 32 rating.

And then there’s the FCS, which used to be called “Division 1-AA”, and competes not for bowl games but to participate in an actual 24-team single elimination tournament for their own national championship. Here are their top 20 teams by ELO-FF rating after four weeks:

North Dakota St (3-0, 2) - #1 – 25 rating.

James Madison (4-0, 1) - #2 – 27 rating.

Sam Houston St (3-0, 3) - #3 – 32 rating.

Illinois St (3-0, 8), South Dakota St (3-0, 4) – equal #4 – 33 rating.

Youngstown St (2-1, 5t), Jacksonville St (2-1, 5t) - equal #6 – 35 rating.

The Citadel (3-0, 11), Western Illinois (3-0, 16), Weber St (3-1, 18) – equal #8 – 36 rating.

Central Arkansas (2-1, 12), South Dakota (3-0, 10), Villanova (2-2, 17) – equal #11 – 37 rating.

Chattanooga (1-3), Richmond (2-2, 15), Liberty (3-1), Eastern Washington (2-2, 9) – equal #14 – 39 rating.

Wofford (3-0, 7), Mercer (1-3), North Carolina A&T (4-0, 13) – equal #18 – 40 rating.

Within the HBC (“Historically Black Colleges”), a subdivision of the FCS which simultaneously holds its own championship, the top five schools are:

North Carolina A&T (4-0, 13), 40 rating; Grambling St (3-1, 19), 44 rating; and equal third with ratings of 50 are South Carolina St (1-2), North Carolina Central (2-1), and Prairie View A&M (1-2).

Our record last week picking winners was only 76% (three out of four), which lowered our season-long record to just over 80% (349 right, 86 wrong). But we are even with the Vegas odds makers and slightly ahead of the Sagarin ratings for accuracy this year (68 to 68 to 62, respectively).

[Originally published in The Roar, Sept 28, 2017]

Can this divide be bridged?

(I'll give away the answer in advance, in case you can't figure it out: Not without Jesus Christ.)

More than at any time in my life, there is a split between two portions of the United States population. Approximately two-thirds of the adult-acting citizenry of the fifty states et al are of a mindset that the most valuable thing this country owns is its Constitution and its founding principles; that this country is greater than the sum of its parts; that progress means inclusion; that our representative democracy is only as worthy as it is usable by its weakest and poorest citizens; and most importantly for this conversation, that what our noble men and women of the military have fought and died to protect the idea and reality of a nation founded on a Constitution which guarantees its citizens certain inalienable basic rights - in the current case, the right to peaceably protest issues within our own borders.

Meanwhile, there exists right alongside those folks the other approximately one-third of our citizenship who are of a mode of thought that the country has been weakened by its zealousness for inclusion; that the most valuable thing in this nation is its flag and what it represents to them; that our democracy is only as valuable as the rights it maintains for its citizens; that what the noble men and women of the finest military in the world have fought and died to protect is very simply the United States of America, plain and simple; and that in the current situation, anyone who has the audacity to use a position of visibility to promote a personal opinion that contradicts the self-evident notion that this is the greatest nation on the face of the earth is at best to be shunned and at worst a traitor to the country they claim to love.

The current debate regarding the kneeling of a few professional football players during the national anthem is an issue that (with the fire starter, Colin Kaepernick, not even playing in the NFL right now) should have been a non-issue but for the off-hand remarks of our President at a campaign rally in a state that ironically has no NFL team! (Though the Crimson Tide is close...) As is his wont, Mr. Trump made incendiary remarks on a topic that was frankly beneath his attention (while North Korea simmers and Puerto Rico drowns), but also as usual he chose a topic which he must have known would further widen the divide between the two Americas: the one who worships the flag, and the one that worships the Constitution.

Both sides believe they are the patriotic ones, and that the other side simply fails to show the respect for the idol of the first side's choosing.

There are Christians on both sides, and I'll wager good, saved Christians on both sides (hopefully none of whom are on the most flammable outcroppings of the battle). In the interest of fairness, I feel the need to admit that I belong to the 2/3 who recognizes the kneeling at the presentation of the colors as a right protected by the First Amendment, and that the calls for firings of anyone disagreeing with those protests are unconstitutional under a 1943 ruling which cites the United States Flag Code itself.

But that's a side point as far as today's article goes. I won't go into all the rest of the arguments on their behalf, except to mention two that amuse me: Mr. Trump himself complained that the POTUS had no right to tell the NFL how to run their business (in 2013), and the practice of a team standing or even being present for the flag salute only started in 2009 when the military paid the NFL to begin implementing these increased ceremonies for their benefit in a time of waning recruitment. All that's an aside. (And I WILL stand by a sponsor's right not to renew a player's endorsement contract, since that's not tied to his vocation. Cancelling is unclear, as that may be interpreted in court as a contract of employment, but non-renewal? Absolutely!)

The point I want to make, however, is this: we as a nation are at an impasse on so many fronts, and the split is virtually identical in every situation. The one-third of the nation which believes that supporting this specific president is the most fundamentally important action they can undertake is at an absolute loggerheads with the two-thirds who believe this specific president is the worst resident of the White House in our history. Those who wonder whether Special Counsel Muller will bring impeachment charges on his violations of the emoluments clause, the ties to Russian interference with the election, or his obstruction of justice, are at odds with those who see the entire investigation as a "witch hunt" born of political intrigue. There's a 180-degree distance between those who see the suppression of certain Constitutional rights as a necessary evil to battle disruptive problems building in the fabric of our nation and those who believe that those rights are so fundamental to our identity as a nation that no reason should ever suppress them. ("If we suspend the Constitution, then the terrorists have won.")

More than the divide between those who call themselves Christians and the true Christians in this country, this "red/blue" chasm threatens to rip the fabric of the United States apart.

Just as God intended it to. 

Had we elected Hilary Clinton president, this divide would never have come to the front burner (but it would still have been there). Had we elected our first female president, she would have been "Obama lite" - a continuation of the previous administration's policies, to a certain extent: a status quo. Had we not elected Mr. Trump, we would have had a Democratic POTUS and a Republican Congress, and an even more drastic impasse than Mr. Obama ever faced. Government would have been at a complete standstill, and we would have accepted it as the way things were supposed to be.

Now, the devastating collapse of our governing system has been exposed. The ever-widening gap between the MAGAs and the #notmypresidents is no longer hidden in plain sight.

And one of two things will happen.

Either our nation will indeed rip itself to shreds over this (imagine the reaction of the one-third when the current POTUS is impeached and most likely removed from office when the special counsel finishes dotting his i's and crossing his t's. There have already been threats of civil war.) or we will find a way to heal - to come together as one nation, to realize that our differences are ones of methodology, not national pride.

When Mr. Trump was elected, I thought perhaps this was God's punishment to America for the sins of our culture. It's almost impossible to deny that the circumstances leading to his election were very specific and at best 'peculiar' - no strong Republican candidates (no McCain, not even a Romney) but such a large field that the conventional vote was spread out and overwhelmed by the anti-establishment vote given to Trump; the weakest Democratic candidate in recent history (can you imagine Mr. Obama or Mr. Clinton having lost an election to him?), no viable third-party candidates in the one year that lent itself perfectly to a successful third-party run. It was Planned from the start. 

Now, I think that this is God's test of America. We are not a necessary part of the End Times script - nowhere in Scripture does "a nation from across the sea" or any such phrase appear in eschatology. But God in His Mercy has given the United States a chance to survive. We have the opportunity to save our nation if we have the courage to make the effort.

How?

By listening to the directives of Jesus Christ, Who told us that Love was more important than anything else. By caring more for others than ourselves. By listening to the "other side" instead of treating them like the enemy - they, too, are patriots!

We will have to find a way to come together as a nation. And that will be as difficult as it was after the Civil War - I truly believe this! - because it's the same racism, the same us-them thought process that existed then and never went away. Slavery was abolished in the 1860s, but the denigration of the non-white citizenry never waned - in fact, they were resented all the more as the cause of their defeat, of what they saw as their embarrassment and destruction.

That resentment is still there, 150 years later. And that's what we have to overcome.

But WE WILL OVERCOME, through the glory of Christ's Love. 

Or we will be destroyed.

Just introduce your friends to each other!

I was listening to Greg Laurie's show this morning, and he was interviewing John Irwin, the director of a Christian documentary that comes out Thursday about the life and salvation of the legendary actor Steve McQueen. (The movie's doing one of those "one night only" theatre presentations Thursday night, Sept 28th, "Steve McQueen: American Icon". Laurie says it's a perfect vehicle to bring a friend who isn't a Believer to, and it's a "safe" way to present the Gospel to them.)

What interested me was the introduction of Christianity to McQueen - from his flying instructor. They were in McQueen's biplane, and here's the description given about those flight lessons:

"In that yellow biplane was the world's biggest movie star, Steve McQueen, with his friend, flying instructor Sammy Mason. Sammy was already friends with Jesus Christ, and he wanted to introduce his two friends to each other."

That's really all there is to it, folks.

You are friends with Christ (I hope). Introduce your other friends to Him the way that you introduce any two other friends to each other. What do you in that circumstance? Well, you often talk about hat they have in common - in this case, that might translate into what Christ can share with your friend that he or she might value. Another connection with any two of your friends is often sharing how YOU met them both, or what the link to your life is and why that might connect to the other person. Hopefully, that would be an easy translation: tell your friend how you met Him, and what that connection is, and why that might connect to your friend as well.

This isn't particularly profound of me, friends. But it's a subject that scares so many people - sharing Jesus Christ with people you care about, even though you know how critical it is that they be saved for their eternal salvation. Don't be scared! Just tell them about your Friend - if YOU like Him, they very well might as well.

(Go to stevemcqueenmovie.com for more information about the movie. It sounds like it'll be well worth it.)

PA-tience, young paduwan....PA-tience.

Stayed home from the job today, on doctor's orders. Tried to convince myself that it was just going to be a make-up day for the work I would've done over the weekend had I not been in the hospital.

By noon, I was toast. Daughter and I had to run to the store for a few groceries, and after that I came home and collapsed for three hours.

Nope. I actually needed to recover today.

When I'm at the doctor's office, or even in the hospital, I am a very gracious client, as a Christian would be expected to be.

A patient patient.

The lengthy delay in getting me into the CT surgery Saturday morning - make that afternoon make that evening - was greeted with equanimity and aplomb. And it wasn't an act: I knew God had me in there for a reason, and I even suspect learning some patience was an element of that. I was a very good boy.

Once I got home, however, I did the same thing I did after three weeks of recuperation post-gallbladder removal in August: Alright, done! Back to work!

And that was the wrong answer both times.

I was told originally it would be 6-8 weeks before I could really resume normal activities, and friends said it was more like 3-4 months. 

Yet there I was, four weeks after surgery, first day of school, and my day looked just like it had a year before. "I'm fine now! I did my time, so now I can do what I need to do!"

Yeah. About that...

It doesn't work that way, with surgery or with anything in life. We don't heal for a prescribed amount of time, and then CLICK! Back to normal! We don't grieve for a certain length of time, we don't recover from trauma in a set period, we don't do anything exactly according to any plan except GOD'S.

There is no precise "finish line" for recovery. There is never a date in which we can say, Well, that's over with and might as well never have happened.

My wife left me and the children almost eight years ago. Since then, my childhood sweetheart and I reunited and got married, a much more complete and loving marriage than the first one was anyway. Do you think that means I don't still wonder, once in awhile, what I could have done differently? Or that it didn't change me in ways that would never revert completely to who I was before she left?

I could make the same argument with the death of my second wife three years ago. I'm now with an amazing woman who is everything I could possibly ask for in a partner, especially given my general health and outlook on life at this age and stage. We're planning our married lives, have a ring picked out, developing our plans for what house we'll live in and such. She slept in the hospital room, in the chair next to me, every night I was there both stays this year. And yet, should anyone be surprised that I still wonder why Melissa had to die at such a young age, or what I could have done to prevent it? Should anyone argue to me that I just need to "get over her" and move on? I have "gotten over her" in the sense that I could "move on", but that heartache will always be there.

I lost my mother to cancer 32 years ago! Should I have simply "forgotten about her by now"? No more than I should forget my father, 25 years gone, or my son, 17 years dead. By the same token, I can't stop my life because of any of these traumas, nor would my mother, father, son, or late wife want me too.

And I can't assume that this wounded belly will simply stop affecting me and I can be completely "normal" again tomorrow, or the next day, or on any particular day. There will come a day when I may lay down to sleep and realize that I hadn't felt a twinge from my side all day. But like the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we won't know when that day is coming until its arrival.

So, I need to continue to be careful - push forward slowly and yet don't remain stagnant. Recovery, like life, is not going to be a steady line but ragged and jagged, some days a notable improvement and other days an apparent set-back. But that day, like That Day, will come, and probably when we least expect it.

Back in the hospital again...

A shorter stay this time, and far less productive, I suppose.

Eight weeks ago, my gall bladder was taken out as quickly as reasonable after it misbehaved. Friday, I started having significant pain near that surgical site, so I went to my regular doctor. He decided he didn't know what caused it, so he sent me to the x-ray folks (where I got a scrubs top for my trouble) and the blood draw folks (always a joy because I'm a "hard stick", as phlebotomists say - thick skin and deep veins that roll and move), waited at my girlfriend's home to wait for results.

Nothing. So he sent me to the imaging center for a deep contrast catscan (where I got the matching trunks to go with the scrub top). Within the hour he calls back: Head straight to the hospital. They're expecting you. (Unusual - most of the time it's the person arriving AT the hospital who's expecting!)

There was an abscess near the former gall bladder site which was filled with something, and it needed to be drained or removed. So after a day of fasting (literally a full day while they bickered from the executive wing down about when to see me in radiology - long story filled with pettiness, not worth a Christian recounting), they put me in a different CT scanner - one where they used it to guide the precision surgery. (SO COOL!) What's more, thanks to my massive pain medicine regimen, they couldn't give me enough Versed or Fenatyl to make me dizzy, much less slow my brain down, which means I got to stay alert for the entire procedure and quiz them along the way!

Turns out it wasn't even liquid. It was dried blood. No infection (after testing it), so rather than remove it surgically, they sent me home today with meds and a follow up in a week.

But it really shot a hole in my weekend!

So, what is God doing? I spent three days essentially doing and learning nothing - there was this minor issue of annoyance from the gall surgery in July, but I have no new diagnosis, nothing particularly new to do or take or feel, and nothing really came of this that I can determine except that my girlfriend's really tired from sleeping in my hospital room both nights, and I missed two days with my kids.

Was there a Point, Lord?

I don't yet know. Maybe I'll find out soon, maybe I won't. But to everything there IS a reason. And maybe THAT is my lesson. I've been doing a ton of questioning as to why my late wife died. Maybe God's using this to tell me Isaiah 55:8-9... "My ways are higher than your ways." Stop worrying about the WHY and just OBEY Me.

If so, that's a pretty useful lesson. Thanks, Lord.

Clip And Save!

  Print this post, put it in a safe spot inside your wallet or purse, and pull it out in case of crisis.

  You may not pay attention to this now - it may not even make any sense to you right now - but there comes a time in every person's life when this information is the ONLY thing that makes any sense.

  Here it is:

  Every human being is a failure. We are all sinners. Despite every effort to live a life near perfection, we inevitably fail. We do things we regret immediately. It seems like there are times when our bodies have minds of their own, in fact. We cannot help it - we are human, born to make mistakes, born to sin against God.

  God knew this, long ago. And He gave us a way to be saved from our own flaws in this world, AND from the required punishments in the next. And it's an amazingly simple way. In fact, if you believe in God at all, which if you're reading this you probably do, then you'll probably accept that it's the way that He originally intended for us to live.

  God wants to live within us, to guide us, so we can live the way He intended us to live all along: by the Spirit, and not ruled by our flesh. That doesn't mean to live without free will; if anything, He gives us BACK our free will, so our minds make decisions instead of our bodies! But He helps us make the choices that lead us to the life that He desires for us - and the Bible says repeatedly that His plans for us are invariably good! (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, etc.).

  ALL YOU NEED TO DO is ask Him to join with you. Admit to Him what He already knows: that you've sinned, that you're tired of trying to do everything your way, and you're finally ready to listen to His guidance. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, accept His payment on the cross as the payment for any and all mistakes you've made trying to do life "your way", and accept His friendship and guiding Hand.

  If you want a script, try reading the two verses in Romans 10:9-10, or simply say something like this: "Lord, I know that I'm a sinner, and I need your help. I come to You, Jesus, and ask for Your saving Grace to forgive my sins. I ask You, Holy Spirit, to come live within me, and be my Guide. I ask You, God, to be my Lord from now on. In Jesus' Holy Name I pray, Amen."

  That's it. Except that once you've prayed this, God knows if you've meant it or not. And if you have, that doesn't exempt you from temptation - in fact, you may become more of a target to the devil. But now you'll have God protecting you and guiding your defenses. If you say it without intent, though, it's meaningless. Just warning you, friend. Just a warning. If you're serious about getting rid of the desperation in your life, pray it and mean it!


  So, you might not be ready for this today. On this particular afternoon or evening, you might still feel that you have a good handle on your life. That's fine. God gives you the freedom to make those choices.
  But when you're ready, pull this out and read it.

  You're welcome.

Ten Topics: College Football Forecasts for Week 4

With so much to talk about in our regular column, there wasn’t room to slip our forecasts for Week 4 into the mix. So since we spent time looking at the different types of games (from arranged cross-sectional blowouts to the close inter-conference contests to the upsets that throw every number out the window), we’re going to share some of the different types of games from the punters’ perspective.

Possible routs: Looking at games that have the potential to be over in the first quarter doesn’t require that the teams be at completely different conference levels. Here are some of the games scheduled for this week, both intersectional and within the same conference:

Ø  Kent State @ Louisville (we have UL by 32; the odds makers say 43.5!).

Ø  Nevada-Las Vegas @ Ohio State (we have OSU -38; the odds makers 40.5).

Ø  Massachusetts @ Tennessee (the numbers range from 28 to 32 points for UT).

Ø  Robert Morris @ North Dakota State (NDSU by 40 on my notes; 45 on Sagarin’s).

But there are some battles inside conferences that look just as lopsided:

Ø  Oklahoma @ Baylor (On the road, OU is a 28-point favorite over the troubled Bears.)

Ø  Boston College @ Clemson (Clemson is a 34-36 point favorite.)

Ø  In the Colonial Athletic Association, James Madison and Richmond are both 18 point favorites within their conference this week against Maine and Elon, respectively.

It happens. You have a really weak team in your league, or a really strong team, and their games often look like three-touchdown wins in advance. But sometimes… Sometimes the favorite has an off day. Sometimes the underdog plays over their head. Sometimes lucky bounces go the ‘dogs’ way.

Closer games but we think this team will win: Many, perhaps most games have something around 7-14 point spreads, like these:

Ø  North Carolina State @ Florida State (FSU is a 12-14 point choice).

Ø  Pitt @ Georgia Tech (GT by 7-11 points.)

Ø  Virginia @ Boise State (BSU favored by 12).

Ø  Michigan @ Purdue (UM by 10-12).

Ø  TCU @ Oklahoma State (OSU by 9-14).

Ø  Washington @ Colorado (UW up by 8-10).

History and mathematics say that a 7-point favorite wins about 75% of the time. A 10-point favorite wins about 80% of the time, and a 14-point favorite wins 85% of the time. But there IS no “100%” category! Of the list above, it’s an easy prediction to say that at least one of those favored teams will lose this week. (The trick, tipsters, is figuring out which one!)

Games with a “favorite”, but…: The 60% probability range looks like about 3-6 point differences between teams. There IS a favorite, and more often than not they’re going to win, but it’s not going to be earth shattering news if they’re upset. Usually all of us pundits agree on the likely winner, if not the point spread. Here’s a handful of those games this week:

Ø  Wake Forest @ Appalachian State (here’s an interesting intersectional: middle of the ACC versus top of the Sun Belt. Wake by anywhere from 2 to 7 points…)

Ø  Notre Dame @ Michigan State (ND by four, consistently.)

Ø  Texas Tech @ Houston (another intersectional: top of the AAC hosting the lower range of the Big 12, and favored by 5-6 points.)

Ø  Utah @ Arizona (It’s anywhere from a one to six point spread in Utah’s favor.)

Ø  Florida @ Kentucky (UK’s played well so far and is only a 2-4 point underdog.)

Ø  San Diego State @ Air Force (After beating two Pac-12 teams, you’d think SDSU would be more than a 3-6 point favorite.)

Ø  Louisiana-Monroe @ Louisiana-Lafayette (we have ULL as 4-6 point favorites, but any rivalry game makes predicting the outcome so much harder!)

Games that really are “too close to call”: There are always going to be games that the point spread is really within the “margin of error”. Any game closer than three points in American football (or Australian, for that matter) is really just an educated coin flip. Some of the games on this list even have different favorites depending on which of us you follow for your predictions:

Ø  Duke @ North Carolina (I have UNC by four; Vegas and Sagarin both think Duke by about 2.)

Ø  Army @ Tulane (I have it a tossup, Sagarin says Army by 3, Vegas says Tulane by 2.)

Ø  Mississippi State @ Georgia (With MSU’s great play in 2017, their odds are anywhere from being a five-point underdog to a one-point favorite! I have them as a one-point dog.)

Ø  Georgia State @ Charlotte (two teams that are really bad this year means nobody knows what will happen when they play another really bad team! I have Charlotte by 2; others are GSU by 4.)

Ø  Utah State @ San Jose State (I have a tie; Vegas sees USU by three.)

Ø  Finally, the two MAC close games: Miami-Ohio @ Central Michigan and Ohio U @ Eastern Michigan. Both games are even to two points either way, take your pick.

These games really are 50-50: when I’ve examined these games over the course of previous years, the games under 3.5 points come out within the margin of error of a coin flip. TL:DR? We’re just guessing on these!